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= Jamal Afari = Jamal Afari is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Tony DeZuniga, Jamal Afari's first appearance was in the comic book The Night Josie Harper Died! as Blade (character)'s mentor.

Fictional character biography
Jamal Afari was the man who raised and taught vampire hunter Blade (character) everything about vampire slaying.

A vampire hunter himself in his youth, Afari grew up a young black man on the mean streets of Harlem living an average life.

Somehow, during that time, he came across vampires and started teaching himself how to fight and kill them to protect himself and the people he cared about in his life. He fought and slew many vampires.

He even tangled with Dracula himself and survived. This gained him honorable respect from many street dwellers he saved who knew his secret. As the years went by, Jamal grew older and began to realize that he wasn't strong enough anymore to carry on his life as a vampire slayer and quietly retired.

He eventually learned how to play the jazz horn with exceptional skill and started to make a living off his talent. This peaceful life was proved short-lived due to Afari's later drug addiction and abuse. He was soon sent to a hospital to get over his problem.

After a while, he got better and recovered. On a cold December night, he was discharged from the hospital. When he made it back to his home, he was attacked by a number of vampires who had followed him and wanted to take revenge on him for their fellow vampires. When it looked as though he was about to die, he received unexpected help from a young orphan named Eric Brooks (who would grow up to be Blade), who was only nine years old at the time.

Together, with Eric's strength and Jamal's knowledge, they managed to kill their attackers. Afari was amazed by Eric's power and resourcefulness, and he became inspired to train him to kill vampires and help others just like he did.

After learning more about Eric's past and his origins, Afari felt sympathy for him and decided to turn a new leaf and started to teach the underage vampire the secrets of slaying vampires.

They moved together to Lady Vanity's brothel in London, where Eric's mother Tara Brooks worked and also where she was killed by the vampire Deacon Frost, which gave young Eric special vampiric abilities.

As time went on and Eric grew into adulthood, Afari ended up becoming the closest thing to a father that Eric had ever known, but this period would end with sadness. Eric (now calling himself Blade after the bladed weapons that he used to kill vampires with), accidentally killed a man suffering from an illness called porphyria. Blade thought the man's disease was vampirism, and when he realized his mistake it was too late.

Scotland Yard found out and started looking for the killer. Afari helped his student escape the authorities by turning himself in, while at the same time he had Blade sail away to the United States. Blade would end up alone in New York City.

A few years later, Blade had to return to London, alerted by Lady Vanity from the brothel that his mentor had gone missing. At first, they both thought Afari had started using drugs again. They were wrong—Dracula had tracked him down and turned him into a vampire as revenge. The aged vampire hunter was now ironically a vampire himself. Blade tracked down Afari and the old man advised him to get away from him. Blade wouldn't listen and then Afari's bloodlust got uncontrollable and he attacked him. Blade reluctantly killed his old mentor in self-defense.

Jamal Afari would later be resurrected by Dracula who needed his knowledge of vampiric lore.

Ultimately, Afari and Blade helped Dracula, unaware that they had resurrected an army of fallen vampires.

Afari was last seen reconciling with Blade and contemplating the consequences of his current situation.

Powers and abilities
Vampirism: Jamal Afari is a vampire and possesses all of the various superhuman attributes commonly associated with vampires.


 * Superhuman Strength: Like all vampires, Jamal Afari is superhumanly strong and possesses about 10 times the strength he possessed as a human, allowing him to lift about oneton.


 * Superhuman Speed: Jamal Afari can run and move at speeds that are beyond the physical limits of the finest human athlete.


 * Superhuman Stamina: Jamal Afari's musculature produces fewer fatigue toxins during physical activity than the musculature of a normal human. He can physically exert himself at peak capacity for a period of several hours before the build-up of fatigue toxins in his blood begins to impair him.


 * Superhuman Agility: Jamal Afari's agility, balance, and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete.


 * Superhumanly Acute Senses: Jamal Afari's senses of sight, smell, and hearing are enhanced to superhuman levels. Jamal Afari, like all vampires, has exceptional night vision and can see with perfect clarity in near-total darkness. He can also detect sounds that ordinary humans can't, even at great distances. His sense of smell is also acute enough to detect the scent of blood in the air, which he can use to track and injured opponent if necessary.


 * Regenerative Healing Factor: Like all vampires, Jamal Afari can rapidly regenerate damaged or destroyed bodily tissues faster and more efficiently than an ordinary human. Jamal Afari can regenerate from multiple bullet wounds, knife wounds, or severe body-wide burns within a matter of hours. However, he isn't able to regenerate missing limbs or organs.


 * Immortality: Though Jamal Afari isn't technically alive, he is functionally immortal for all intents and purposes. Since he isn't alive, he is immune to the effects of all known Earthly diseases and infections. As long as he feeds on fresh blood on a regular basis, Afari's aging process is completely halted as well.


 * Shapeshifting: Jamal Afari, like all vampires, possesses a limited shapeshifting ability and can transform into a bat, a wolf, or as a gaseous mist. He retains his full intelligence in these forms and typically uses them for the purpose of traveling faster than he can while in his human form.


 * Weather Manipulation: Jamal Afari, like all vampires, possess the ability to greatly manipulate the weather over a limited area, such as creating immensely powerful thunderstorms. However, manipulating the weather in such a way leaves him physically and mentally drained for an extended period of time.


 * Hypnotism and Mind Control: Like all vampires, Jamal Afari has the ability to hypnotize most beings just by making eye contact with them for a few seconds. While under his influence, he can force people to do his bidding, though beings of great will power can resist him. Jamal Afari can also mentally control other vampires that he himself has created, or rather he could if he ever did sire other vampires.